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Originally, the name ''Rus’'' (Русь, ''Rus'') referred to the people,〔Encyclopaedia Britannica: ("Rus People" )〕 the region, and the medieval states (9th to 12th centuries) of the Kievan Rus' polities. In the Western culture it is better known as Ruthenia from the 11th century onwards.〔(Encyclopedia of Ukraine )〕 Its territories are today distributed among Belarus, Ukraine, and a part of the European section of the Russian Federation. One of the earliest written sources mentioning the people called Rus' (as ''Rhos'') dates back to year 839 AD in a Royal Frankish chronicle ''Annales Bertiniani''; the Frankish authorities identified them as a Germanic tribe called the Swedes. According to the Kievan Rus' ''Primary Chronicle'', compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus' were a group of Varangians, Norsemen who had relocated somewhere from the Baltic region (literally "from beyond the sea"), first to Northeastern Europe, then to the south where they created the medieval Kievan state. The modern name of Russia (''Rossiya''), which came into use in the 17th century, is derived from the Greek ''Ρωσία'' (transliterated ''Rosia''), which in turn derives from ''Ῥῶς'' (transliteration: ''Ros''), an early Greek name for the people of Rus'. "''Rus" as a state had no proper name; by its inhabitants it was called ''rusĭskaja zemlja'' (''русьская земля'') – with ''rusĭskaja'' becoming ''russkaja'' in Modern Russian –, which translates as "Land of the Rus'". The word ''rusĭskaja'' is an adjective: the morpheme ''-ĭsk-'' corresponds etymologically to English ''-ish''; ''-aja'' marks feminine adjectives (namely, ''zemlja'', "land", is grammatically feminine in Slavic). In similar fashion, Poland is called ''Polska'' by its inhabitants, that is, ''Pol-sk-a'', originally being the adjective ''Polish'' (land). To distinguish the medieval "Rus'" state from other states that derived from it, modern historiography calls it "Kievan Rus'." Its predecessor, the 9th century "Rus' Khaganate," is a somewhat hypothetical state whose existence is inferred from a handful of early medieval Byzantine and Persian/Arabic sources that mention that the Rus' people were governed by a khagan. == Etymology == According to the most prominent theory, the name Rus', like the Finnish name for Sweden (''Ruotsi''), is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" (''rods-'') as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen (the Rowing crews) or ''Roden'', as it was known in earlier times.〔The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text Translated by O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor ISBN 0-910956-34-0〕 The name Rus' would then have the same origin as the Finnish, Estonian, Võro and North Sami names for Sweden: ''Ruotsi'', ''Rootsi'', ''Roodsi'' and ''Ruoŧŧa''.〔"(Russia )," Online Etymology Dictionary〕 It is remarkable enough that the local Finnic and Permic peoples in northern Russia proper use the same (''Rus-related) name both for Sweden and Russia (depending on the language): thus the Veps name for Sweden / Swedish is ''Ročinma'' / ''Ročin'',〔"Зайцева М. И., Муллонен М. И. Словарь вепсского языка (Dictionary of Veps language). Л., «Наука», 1972.〕 while in the neighboring Komi language the etymologically corresponding term ''Ročmu'' / ''Roč'' means already Russia / Russian instead.〔Zyri͡ansko-russkīĭ i russko-zyri͡anskīĭ slovarʹ (Komi - Russian dictionary) / sostavlennyĭ Pavlom Savvaitovym. Savvaitov, P. I. 1815–1895. Sankt Peterburg: V Tip. Imp. Akademīi Nauk, 1850.〕〔Русско–коми словарь 12000 слов (Russian – Komi dictionary, Л. М. Безносикова, Н. К. Забоева, Р. И. Коснырева, 2005 год, 752 стр., Коми книжное издательство.〕 The Danish scholar T. E. Karsten has pointed out that the territory of present-day Uppland, Södermanland and East Gothland in ancient times was known as ''Roðer'' or ''roðin''. Thomsen accordingly has suggested that ''Roðer'' probably derived from ''roðsmenn'' or ''roðskarlar'', meaning seafarers or rowers. Ivar Aasen, the Norwegian philologist and lexicographer, noted Norwegian dialect variants ''Rossfolk'', ''Rosskar'', ''Rossmann''.〔Ivar Aasen, Norsk Ordbog, med dansk Forklaring, Kristiania 1918 (1873), p.612〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rus (name)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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